Do you support a tax on plastic containers?

The Greens want to force the states to tax plastic containers expected to cost the average family $300 a year.

http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/07/14/509431_latest-news.html

 

User pays. What will we eve do without the old Chinese take away containers.

 

Eat at the restaurant or bring your own container the way some people take bags to the grocery store. The real question is will the tax have a noticeable impact on littering because if it does not then it is useless.

 

I do not support a tax of ANY sort.

Our Federal Government has proven that they are poor stewards of our tax dollars, and they somehow manage to spend more than we can possibly give them, driving this nation deeper and deeper into debt.

What possible good will a new tax do?

 

An extra $4 a slab?! Mother (*)(*)(*)(*)ers!! I'm not necessarily opposed to new taxes, but this seems rather pointless and counter productive. I highly doubt it will make it into law.

On a side note, I'm sick of politicians going on about "working families." Seriously, I dont give a (*)(*)(*)(*) about working families. Yeah, yeah, they've got kids and blah blah, but lets face it, pollies dont care at all about these people - its just a phrase trying to draw out some primitive appeal to traditional values. It really irritates me.

 

Freddy, where do all those plastic container end?
The biggest number on the tip, the smaller number left and right of our roads.
I think, they should serve any kind of food on real plates(china),
not only for a healthier reason, but to minmize their impacts they are having on our landfills.
I tend to have system introduced, where we rely far more on refunding containers or bottles or cans, for the good of all.
Cheers

 

I think you may find that they do the working families dance for the media. What are the reporters going to do slam extras for little kids, I don't think so.

Basically they are trying to gain points by appealing to the medias quaint sense of morality.

Off side note and back to the problem at hand. Make them refundable and any extra revenue raised goes back into recycling industry. This is a more direct plan than the CT. More merit I believe. If you support the CT you should support this.

 

the cigarette tax is shrinking, now they need to make up for it, candy is next... all in the name of protecting our health and environment

 

wouldn't buy back schemes do more for the environment than taxing people?

Would not a incentive program be more proactive than a penalty scheme?

That would be a major problem with governments these days. They consider the best result would be punishment, rather than incentives. Why? because penalties have a two fold reward for government. Not only does it appear they are doing something to rectify problems, it also builds financial support for their own resources. NSW should stand out as a major sign of this, as they allocated $600m (odd) in their budget from fines and penalties to their budget.

Where is the incentive? People consider, that penalising something will make them change their ways, is visionary. These people, really do have a short sighted view of what visionary really is. By promoting incentive programs for the public to remove the offending products from where they are, is more visionary than, penalising for the benefit of government and appearance.

With penalty programs, we see more welfare for people to adjust for the ability for people to remain at a level of wealth, to at least be able to provide for themselves. Thus continuing the cycle. But incentive schemes, people are not impacted directly, and they will have an incentive to create wealth for themselves, be it large or small.

Sure, it could be construed that people will change their habits due to a new tax, but what choice does somebody have at times. This type of policy usually does very little to change things, it simply passes another cost onto the community, generally.

It could also be construed that an incentive based system is more expensive for the government. Well let us face it, it is not their money, it is the peoples. Why, do governments feel that they can continue to stick their hands in the pockets of the people? They splash funds about like it is their own, to promote their own position and expect that Australians can just continue to fork it out, if they want more. Let us face the truth, $300m for advertising of government policy, to tell the people, how great they are doing. really people? How do you feel? You pay $300m, for somebody else to tell you how you should vote. How would you feel about paying all your neighbours bills and they come and tell the world how great, they are doing on you money?

Basically, it is simply another Green attempt at socialist government system, in attempts to make people dependant on welfare.

 

This is bordering on ridiculous.
This tax is nothing but a disguised "pick up your rubbish, children" direction from incompetent
politicians.
Can you imagine standing in line at your local bottlo or supermarket with a plastic bag full of
bottles, etc, waiting to collect your 10c per item...then where does the outlet store the bottles,etc...
in a dumpster out the back....what about vending machines....how do you get your 10c back...
wait until the operator refills the machine....race in and collect your 10c....come on....theyre
treating us like kids......

I have totally lost all respect for politicians...who I rate barely above used car salesmen and
journalists..................

 

I can remember the days when there was very little plastic around. All drinks were in glass bottles and there was quite a commotion when it was proposed to start using plastic bottles, the main argument against was that plastic bottles would cause a litter problem. I think ity would be best to go back to glass and have a refund system, children would ensure there was never a bottle left laying around anywhere. We used to take our own container to the chinese takeaway, I don't see why we could not go back to that. Fish and chips were wrapped in newspaper which made good recycling sense, now you get them in white plastic containers.

 

Yes, I remember those days....
What concerns me is...will they stop at plastic containers, or will they include poly-styrene cups and cans...
Imagine the kerfuffle if they had to charge an additional 10c at the footy for drinks and chips, and then
refund it later....the mind boggles........

 

Is there some problem with plastic bottles? All the article is about is IF they should be taxed because of some group called the 'Greens.'

 

Plastic does have some uses. I would hate to go back to the bad old days of metal toothpaste tubes! At least plastic tubes don't crack so the toothpaste squirts out all over the place...

 

Look I don't think a user pays system is bad. We have been too wasteful for too long. Having said this there also needs to be an alternative option in place where the consumer is not disadvantaged by taking a cleaner option. Lets take the advent of the green bag into account. This was to cut the use of plastics. Of the top of my head we were initially charged $ 1 per bag, I think the price has increased since. Funny thing is the price to by these bags at the wholesale end has decreased as there are more suppliers of them......so why has there price increased ? because Woolworths and the like are making a substantial profit from them. To me this is shameful...surprise surprise Woolies taking advantage !

To most that remember the good old refund recycling days the advent of a scheme like this makes sense and to me seems a far more direct and positive move for the environment than the CTax. We are very wasteful society, and our refuse is an immediate problem. A very large environmental problem. Unfortunately it seems that we have to give up the most important thing to us.....money, in order for us to change. This seems outlandish to me, but it does seem money has become far more important than life.

As you all know I am not an environmentalist, but I am not a person with my head up my bum neither. We are destroying our world slowly and ourselves along with it. It's like smokers, they know it is killing them but they just can't give it up. we know our lifestyle is killing us but just don't seem to want to give the bad bits up......not even for life itself.

 

Im in agreeance generally with what you say, but its the incompetent manner in which these proposals are brought forward which
irks me...we are treated like children by incompetent politicians and its not really a tax if you add 10c to a container, and then you give
back 10c per container...this is just a glorified clean up campaign which if implemented, would be a pain in the arse for everyone....

 

Green bags, yes! Aha aha aha !! I got a good laugh out of them. Next time you pick up a green or blue bag look at the label, yep, they're made of plastic! How many ordinary thin plastic shopping bags to you think could be made from one thick green or blue bag? I reckon you would have gained nothing by the time you chuck the green bag. When I was a kid my mum had a big bag that she made herself that was her shopping bag. Shops didn't put your grocerys in bags, sometimes if you were lucky there were some empty boxes at the checkout, otherwise you had to supply your own bag/s. Should go back to it, it would engender all the more recycling.

 

not everyone will seek the refund, I think they work off 10 to 20 %.

Magoo do you think they treat us like kids because we behave like kids ? Think about it in general, we always look to blame someone else, we refuse to take responsibility for our own lives, and we put a bloke into the top job because his slogan was Kevin 07. Lol.

 

I could be wrong but I think that might be from recycled plastic ?

 

First of all, they treat us like kids because they sit in their ivory towers and have never done an honest days work in their lives.
Name me some politicians who have spent some time at the coal face and have done a bit of hard yakka. I once lived/worked
in Canberra for two years and saw how the politicians treated everyone. Honest to god, they live in a different world. They are
not real human beings. Secondly, I accept responsibility for what I do and dont do, and I didnt vote for Kevin from Heaven.

Can imagine buying takeaways in a Food Hall in say Miranda, being charged an extra 10c for each container, eating the food, then
returning to the counter, standing in line, waiting to be served, collecting your 30c, and watching the counter person toss the
containers in a bin under the counter...what a joke...oohh by the way, no-one has answered the question about getting a refund
from the vending machine operator....this is a ridiculous piece of legislation, drafted by some moronic academic who hasnt lived, and just wants to be a hero and clean up the world...a typical pain in the arse tree hugger...........

 

Really, they treat us like kids because we allow them. Allowing insurance companies to evade paying their responsibility. should they find fault. Governments pandering to big business has allowed accountability to be moved away from where it should be. Look around you, Laws are created to find blame. Workcover logo "there is no such thing as an accident" Government has began a culture of laying blame to aid the help of big business, NOT the people. It only stands that people will adopt the same attitude.

Let us put an example to you, a car travelling at high speed in fog, runs a stop sign, and slams into another car. the car he has hit has, what the law considers, a bald tire, who is at fault? according to the laws, the car that was hit is. Do you know why?

Plastics are filling our lives, it is the fault of the people for using them? Let us hold them accountable. Fact is, before the plastic bags paperbags and boxes where the norm. Let us return to them. Oh wait, they are made from trees, that was the Green complaint, for going to plastic bags to begin with. let us just pile the food in a troph and eat from that that will be environmentally friendly, then we can blame the sources of the food for food poisoning. Where does it end?

Please, bring some sense back to the world. Stop the rot, of the government treating the people who chose to represent them as pawns. They really can not be excused for introducing stupid regulations and taxes in the assumption, that it is the best for the world.

 

garry17
You have me intrigued...can you elaborate on the accident in the fog....seems clearcut negligence by the driver
running the stop sign to me.....

 

So Garry who is to blame for the government......they didn't get there by themselves.

Frivolous law suits came about from frivolous claims ? Not by a government, by an individual against another individual. If a claim wasn't made a precedent would not of been set and a law wouldn't be passed. So where did this start ? Everything has an origin. Some individual has to come up with it. The problem is we all follow and without question.

Governments and law makers can only be held responsible for exploiting the problem, not creating it !

 

The Legal system would consign blame to the driver that was hit. According to the Law, the car that had the bald tyre should not be on the road. Therefore the Accident could not have occurred. Forget the fact that it could easily be somebody else, that the driver who should be at blame for not only running a stop sign but for not driving to conditions. Insurance will not pay, because it is a faulty car, and the Legal system, governed by laws created by our politicians, accept this as reasonable.

What are the contributung causes of accidents? Speed, fatigue and substance abuse. Nothing about, just stupid, people who think they are Peter perfect behind the wheel. The law decides, should anything else be contributing, means that the vehicle should not be on the road, therefore an accident can not occur.

 

What a load of crap.

The law decides based on the evidence before the court...your statement is a load of bollocks based on generalisations
and opinions...give us the facts of a case mate, and then a decision can be made as to who is at fault, just like
a decision is made in a court of law......